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'Some Missing Coregencies in Thiele's Andrews University Seminary Studies, Spring 1992, Vol. 30, No. 1, 3558. Copyright Q 1992 by Andrews University Press. SOME MISSING COREGENCIES IN THIELE'S CHRONOLOGY LESLIE McFALL Cambridge, England . Chronological schemes for the Divided Monarchy period of Israelite history can be classified into two incompatible approaches. On the one hand are those interpreters who regard the synchro- nisms and lengths of reign recorded in the books of Kings and Chronicles as conveying genuine historical data. For this group, the MT text ranges from total accuracy (or virtually so) to widespread corruption of the numbers given. On the other hand are those interpreters who display an attitude of irreconcilability of the numerical data, exploring instead the possibility that these data in Kings and Chronicles conceal some numerico-theological meaning.' In 1944 Edwin R. Thiele published a breakthrough study with regard to the chronology of the kingdoms of Judah and Israel? In this he provided a consistent and rational chronology revealing the basic accuracy of the royal lengths of reign and synchronisms given in Kings and Chronicles. In fact, since the publication of an expanded version of Thiele's findings in 1951 in the first edition of 'See K. Stenring, The Enclosed Garden (Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell, 1966), and G. Larsson, The Secret System: A Study in the Chronology of the Old Testament (Leiden: Brill, 1973); idem, "Is Biblical Chronology Systematic or Not?" RQ 24 (1969): 499-517; idem, "The Documentary Hypothesis and the Chronological Structure of the Old Testament," ZAW 97 (1985): 316333. These have been followed by F. H. Cryer, "To the One of Fictive Music: OT Chronology and History," Scandinmian Journal of the Old Testament 2 (1987): 1-27, a particularly disappointing work inasmuch as most of Cryer's "problem texts" have been dealt with in an exemplary manner by many reputable scholars. 2Edwin R. Thiele, "The Chronology of the Kings of Judah and Israel," JNES 3 (1944): 137-186. 36 LESLIE MCFALL his Mysterious Numbers of the Hebrew ~ings:, there has been, in my view, no serious contender to rival his dates. Thiele's system has become the biblical scholar's first preference, because it has stood the test of time under the scrutiny of a host of able scholars. The recent attempt by J. H. Hayes and P. K. ~ookeflto put forward a new chronology is unlikely to succeed due to its reversion to the old "tried-and-failed method of changing the text? These scholars have resorted to a number of textual emendations, including a reduction of 12 to 11 years for Ornri's rule, altering 22 to 15 for Ahab's reign, and changing 28 to 18 for Jehu's rule, plus many other similar alterations. Where the biblical figures do not fit in with the scheme of these authors, royal . abdications are invented. Thus Baasha's reign is reduced to 22 years (MT, 24 years) and the last two years are considered as "abdication years." Likewise, Ads reign is reduced to 29 years (MT, 411, with the last 12 years being "abdication years." Thus, in place of coregencies, Hayes and Hooker postulate abdications, counting the years after each abdication as part of the king's reign. The question naturally arises, What is the material difference chronologically between coregencies and these abdica- tions since the period of abdication is counted twice, once for the old king and once for his successor? Hayes and Hooker dismiss coregencies with the argument that "the weakness" in assuming them "is the fact that the hypothesis of coregencies is without biblical warrant." As Thiele had already shown, the occurrence of coregencies during the Divided Monarchy is by no means without 3Edwin R. Thiele, The Mysterious Numbers 4 the Hebrew Kings (Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press; and Cambridge, Eng.: Cambridge University Press, 1951). The 2d and 3d editions were published in Grand Rapids, MI, by Zondervan in 1965 and 1983. Throughout the present article the references to Thiele will generally be from the 3d ed. 'J. H. Hayes and P. K. Hooker, A New Chronology for the Kings of Israel and Judah (Atlanta, GA: John Knox Press, 1988). %ee J. M. Miller, "Another Look at the Chronology of the Early Divided Monarchy," JBL 86 (1967): 276-288, for older works advocating unavoidable textual emendations. Miller, 286, states that he cannot avoid textual emendations to the MT if harmony is to be achieved. 'jHayes and Hooker, 11. MISSING COREGENCIES 37 biblical warrant? And in any case, even if the statement by Hayes and Hooker were true, their own theory of abdications would fall victim to it too. Thiele's work opened up a new chapter in the chronological study of the Divided Monarchy, in that he abandoned a method- ological mistake that had characterized the work of earlier researchers: that of emending the text whenever any seemingly "contradictory" data appeared. However, in my opinion his work can be improved upon, and certain scholars, such as Siegfried H. Horn, have already taken a step or two in this direction.' I propose in this article to add to their findings by expanding the number of coregencies recognized by Thiele, as well as by looking more closely at the ones already noted by other scholars. Thiele has made a good case for seven coregencies among the monarchs of Israel (the northern kingdom), and of Judah (the southern kingdom). According to Thiele, one such coregency occurred in Israel-namely, that of Jeroboam I1 with Jehoash; and six occurred in Judah-Jehoshaphat with Asa, Jehoram with Jehoshaphat,Azariah (Uzziah)with Amaziah, Jotham with Azariah, Ahaz with Jotham, and Manasseh with Hezekiah? Using the same set of basic factors that Thiele uncovered during the course of his work on the chronology of the Hebrew kings, I believe I can show four further coregencies that he overlooked-one for Israel and three for Judah.'' 'For example, Thiele, Mysterious Numbers, 1st ed., 17,35-36, and 3d ed, 61-65; and Thiele, "Coregencies and Overlapping Reigns among the Hebrew Kings," JBL 93 (1974): 174200. sSee Siegfried H. Horn, 'The Chronology of King Hezekiah's Reign," AUSS 1 (1969): 40-52. gThiele, Mysterious Numbers, 3d ed., 61, lists these, plus two "overlapping reigns" in Israel-- and Tibni, and Menahem and Pekah. A century or so before Thiele's work, only two mregenaes had been widely recognized, those of Uzziah with Amaziah and of Jotham with Uzziah (see D. Kerr, "Chronology of the Kingdoms of Israel and Judah," JSL 4 [Oct. 18491: 241-257); and this was still the situation in 1895 (see E. L. Curtiss, "The Old Testament Reckoning of Regnal Years," JBL 14 [1895]: 125-130). 1°For a comprehensive review of Thiele's chronology, see Leslie McFall, "A Translation Guide to the Chronological Data in Kings and Chronicles," BibSac 148 (1991): 3-45. I believe it is possible to make out a case for a fifth additional coregency (for Ahaziah of Israel) if the biblical material should so require (ibid., p. 19, text no. 21). 38 LESLIE MCFALL Five Basic Factors Five simple factors taken into account by Thiele are basic for the emergence of a harmonious chronology for the Hebrew kings. These are as follows: (1) two alternatives for the New-Year's day; (2) two methods for counting the first year of a king's reign; (3) the freedom to switch from one system of counting to the other; (4) two source documents; and (5) the existence of coregencies. Two New-Year's Days During the reign of Solomon the regnal year began on the first day of the seventh month, Tishri (our Sept/Oct)." This date continued to be used in Judah after the division of Solomon's kingdom and was retained there, as far as we can tell, all through- out Judah's 345-year history. The ten northern tribes, referred to as "Israel," immediately under Jeroboam switched the beginning of their year to the first day of the first month Nisan (our March/ April); and as far as the evidence goes, that day remained the New-Year's day in the northern kingdom until the end of that kingdom's 208-year existence. Occasionally this difference in the official beginning of the year would result in a discrepancy of one year in reckoning synchronisms between the years of the monarchs of Judah and of Israel. The small amount of evidence available suggests that in both kingdoms Nisan was the first month of the cultic year, and that the months of the year were numbered consecutively from it, irrespective of when the New Year's day was observed.'* Two Systems for Counting Regnal Years Two systems were in use in Judah and Israel for reckoning the beginning of the monarch's reign: the accession-year system (or "See Thiele, Mysterious Numbers, 3d ed., 51-52. D. J. A. Clines, 'The Evidence for an Autumnal New Year in Pre-exilic Israel Reconsidered," ]BL 93 (1974): 22-40, for a discussion of the issue. Cf. E. Greswell, Dissertations upon the Principles and Arrangement ofa Harmony of the Gospels, 3 vols. (Oxford, 1837), vol. 3, Appendix Dissertation XII, "On the Chronology of the Kingdoms of Judah and of Israel," 484, for the evidence concerning the common assumption that Nisan was the regnal month for both Israel and Judah. See also Thiele, Mysterious Numbers, 3d ed., 52, n. 11. MISSING C0REC;ENCIE.S 39 "single-counting") and the nonaccession-year system (or "double- counti ngl'). In the single-counting (or accession-year) system the new king's years were counted from the New Year's day after the old king died, but under the double-counting (or nonaccession-year) system the new king's years were counted from the New Year's day bqbre the old king died.
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